HALF A TONNE OF FAT AND COUNTING!

This post is about matching your marketing toward the clients you want to attract and that handy little phrase "HALF A TONNE OF FAT AND COUNTING" generated more interest and got me booked out faster than mentioning any personal training course I'd completed or sport I'd played in the past.

Depending on your background and reputation in the fitness industry, most newly accredited personal trainers can't afford to be overly choosy in who they take on as a client.

So the key is to gear all of your advertising material toward a specific group of people, let's say weight loss for example; as I did with that headline, then your precious time and marketing budget should be directed right in the faces of that market.

Most men and women that join gyms are trying to achieve some kind of weight loss, but at the same time have no idea how to achieve it or a realistic idea of how long it will take.

Overweight members get their weight loss information from general media like magazines and television and by looking around the gym and copying what 'skinny' people are doing.

If you take some time to observe these members, you'll notice that they isolate themselves to the machine circuits and cardio areas and rarely venture into the free weight sections.

The simple reason for this and it's basic human nature, is that they're looking for their comfort zone. There are no mirrors, no hero's throwing weights around and everyone else is just like them.

So how do you capitalize on this information? The first place to look, is ask yourself how you present yourself on your profile plaque that you display in the gym you operate from and where is it hanging?

Think about who you designed your profile to impress.

What I notice, especially with male personal trainers is the plaques just look like a p!ssing competition between each other with no specific information that any general member will find useful.

Did you play football for 10 years, do you have a black belt in karate, do you have a degree in human movement, who cares? Think about what this means to the average person looking to lose weight; it means very very little.

HALF A TONNE OF FAT AND COUNTING!

What you need to do is specify how you can assist your target market. Tell them what they want to hear.

Most trainers have their names at the top of their profiles, I don't really know why, but why not try a headline across the top of your plaque?

A good headline draws people in, what's the point of having a profile that no one reads?

As I mentioned at the start, a phrase that worked great for me while I was targeting overweight clients was "HALF A TONNE OF FAT AND COUNTING!" It was in capitals, bold and had a great big exclamation point slapped on the end for good measure. I backed my claim with testimonials and before and after photographs.

I also had an offer for a free half an hour consultation to see if I could help them add their fat loss to my tally. It may sound a bit presumptuous, but believe me it generated interest.

Maybe you're new to the business and haven't had enough clients to make a claim like that so emphasize what you have achieved. Maybe you lost a lot of weight yourself or changed someones life for the better.

You could try headlines like:

"I LOST 30KGS, YOU CAN TOO!"
"I WAS FAT AND MISERABLE!"
"I FEEL GREAT!"

A snippet of a testimonial is also fantastic:

"[your name] changed my life!"
"I've never felt better!" (their name)"
"Hire [your name] you won't regret it!" (their name)

You can utilize this same principle to any target market. A personal trainer and bodybuilding competitor friend of mine that focuses on muscle gain for his clients tried "3 STATE CHAMPION BODYBUILDERS AND COUNTING" and offered a free consultation, needless to say that guys and girls looking for those kind of results made the call.

Lastly, look at where your profile is being displayed. Is it where your target market congregate? You may have to negotiate with the gym owner or manager, but if their interest is making money then they should pay attention to these basic marketing principles.

Work hard and good luck!

Additional Reading: THE PROBLEM WITH PERSONAL TRAINER PROFILE PLAQUES